What's Happening

Join us for worship at 11 a.m. on Sunday., the third Sunday in Lent. Adult ed and Youth Sunday school will be held at 10 a.m. and intermediate Sunday school during worship. Nursery is available for small children. Enjoy refreshments with us after the service.

During Lent this year, we will explore some of the "I am" statements of Jesus. These statements are all found in the Gospel of John.

Dumbarton United Methodist Church responded to its national denomination's tougher rules on Sunday by celebrating the 32nd year of supporting gay, lesbian and other people and welcoming two women members to repeat their wedding vows.

The Georgetown church’s Reconciling Sunday event came just five days after the General Conference of the United Methodist Church reinforced its ban on same-gender weddings and its refusal to ordain LGBTQIA+ people as clergy.

With their two small children by their side, Amy Stapleton and Jennifer Stapleton restated wedding vows on the 15th anniversary of their wedding in San Francisco and the 20th year of being together. A large Mardi Gras style party was held afterward.

The service was led by the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, who had just returned from the General Conference in St. Louis. “”For many of us, the United Methodist Church died this week,” she said. “We repudiate the actions of the General Conference and claim God’s love for all people. We are not about to stop now.”

Regardless of the damage done by the United Methodist General Conference in February, Dumbarton United Methodist Church will stick to its core values. We will continue to practice full inclusion. We will continue to offer our building and our clergy for same gender weddings. We will not obey unjust rules.

Dumbarton has been at the forefront of support for LGBQTIA+ people. We were one of the first United Methodist churches in Washington to join the reconciling movement and the first to conduct same-gender weddings. We are not about to stop now. LGBTQIA+ people are beloved children of God, created in God’s image, and wholly worthy of affirmation, ordination, and marriage in the United Methodist Church.

Dumbarton United Methodist Church is the oldest United Methodist congregation in Washington, D.C., dating back almost 200 years before the United Methodist denomination was created — even back before the United States was created.

On Wednesday, when the church’s minister, the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, traveled back to Washington from a groundbreaking meeting in St. Louis where the denomination decided to uphold its opposition to same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy, she thought that centuries-old history might be at a breaking point.

“To think of not being Methodist,” she said, then stopped, unable to complete the sentence. Dumbarton voted to affirm gay worshipers more than 30 years ago, and the church has performed 20 same-sex marriages since 2010, breaking the rules of the denomination every time. Now such actions will be met with much harsher penalties.